Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint Eye Age Verification Amid California Law Backlash

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Related: A new California law says all operating systems, including Linux, need to have some form of age verification at account setup (PC Gamer)

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Source: 9to5Linux

Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint Eye Age Verification Amid California Law Backlash

The upcoming law mandates that OS providers and application developers implement age verification measures to protect minors online.

by Marcus Nestor
March 4th, 2026

A Digital Age Assurance Act law (AB 1043) in California, US, effective January 1st, 2027, requires operating systems to ask users to input their birth date during the initial setup to follow child privacy rules.

The upcoming law mandates that OS providers and application developers implement age verification measures to protect minors online, which includes collecting age information during account setup and providing age bracket signals to devs when apps are downloaded.

Earlier this week, Ubuntu developer Aaron Rainbolt proposed on the Ubuntu mailing list an optional D-Bus interface (org.freedesktop.AgeVerification1) that can be implemented by arbitrary applications as a distro sees fit, but Canonical responded today that the company does not yet have a solution to announce for age declaration in Ubuntu.

“Canonical is aware of the legislation and is reviewing it internally with legal counsel, but there are currently no concrete plans on how, or even whether, Ubuntu will change in response,” said Jon Seager, VP Engineering at Canonical. “The recent mailing list post is an informal conversation among Ubuntu community members, not an announcement. While the discussion contains potentially useful ideas, none have been adopted or committed to by Canonical.”

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Read more: https://9to5linux.com/ubuntu-fedora-linux-mint-eye-age-verification-amid-california-law-backlash